From Big Oil to Big Poo, from cold Canadian winters to humid Texas nights - a Plucky Canadian girl gets plunked into the sweltering heart of Tejas.

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Sunday, March 05, 2017

Almond Milk Myth Confirmed and Other Odd Things I'm Up To

Experiment: Make my own almond milk at home and see if it's true what I've heard, commercial almond milk has more water than almonds.

Data: It takes 40 almonds to make a half gallon of almondmilk. (Says the HEB organics unsweetened vanilla flavor almond milk I usually buy at HEB).

My almond milk recipe called for one cup of almonds to 4 cups of filtered water. So, 104 almonds (yep I counted) and that made 16 OZ of milk.

Myth: Commercial almond milk as more water than almonds. CONFIRMED.

I’m not great at math but 40 almonds for 64 ounces vs 104 almonds for 16 ounces says….yep this myth be confirmed as fact.

So, next step is to check the price on the almonds verses the price of the milk.

It TASTED much better. Like a milkshake vs regular milk. And as someone who doesn’t really like milk (and milk doesn’t really like her) almond milk is a perfect alternative. Creamy and sweet without the poo issues after. (Yes poo issues!)

Also, I’ve been watching documentaries again. And although I won’t be turning into a vegan a-la the documentary Vegucated, I did find out some things that make me pause.

So, apparently, and why I never really thought about this before amazes me, in order to get milk from the cows, the cows have to be pregnant. So, every three years or so they get a milking cow pregnant, after 48 hours TAKE AWAY HER BABY and then attach her to a machine so she can make milk for us. If they wait to take the calf any longer they get 'trouble from the cow'. Well, yeah.

So. If I hadn’t been feeding MY OWN BABY milk at the same time I was watching this, maybe it wouldn’t have affected me so much.

And I know what most people will say - they’re just animals. Some might even say they’re put on earth for us. But, they’re sentient beings. And I’m taking away their children so I can eat ice cream.

I think, back a hundred years ago most families had a cow or access to cow. And once they had their baby, we could take milk for our families too and there’s plenty for everyone.

Same goes for killing chickens for supper and eating their eggs for breakfast. On a small farm, you could do these things humanely.

The problem, at least in my humble view, is when we try to force these processes into a commercial factory - a factory process made for efficiency and mass productivity.

Then the process becomes cruel, inhumane, and really just awful. Its awful for the living, breathing animals stuck in a process made for mass producing car parts and lawn equipment, and awful for the people they draft to work in the slaughterhouses, in the dark, suffocating chicken coops.

Anyway, will I never eat ice cream again? I can’t imagine a life without ice cream. So far I have not. I am looking for alternatives. If I can find a dairy-free ice cream alternative I like just as much, and where I know I don’t have to participate in the awful process of separating a living being from their offspring, that would be best.

Maybe I’ll get my own cow and make my own ice cream…

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.” Paul and Linda McCartny.